If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Annacloy River Feb 2018

Part 1
The weather at the weekend was to dictate where we would end up paddling. The best day would be Sunday, but the winds would be fairly strong and from the west. Andy Nick and I wanted a fairly local paddle, (Co. Down) so that meant the Upper Bann, the Lagan or the Annacloy. The first two flow west (into the wind) and the Annacloy flows mostly east, (tailwind) so it was a nobrainer. Although the Annacloy was a spate river so it might be a bit scrapey on the way down.

But as I was having my tea on Saturday evening, I could hear the rain on the roof (coming down like stair rods, as they say over here), and it continued in that fashion right up to bedtime. The Annacloy would be fine.

We met at Raleigh bridge and looked upstream into the gorge. We weren’t running that section today, and just as well, as there was a large tree stuck halfway down. I went up to take a few photos to post on the CANI website to warn others of the danger.

Looking upstream

The tree.

The view downstream was encouraging, a good flow, in fact the highest I’d seen it for some time. This was going to be a good trip.

Nick was there when I arrived and Andy arrived just after me. We took stock of the levels, agreed that we were happy to run it, and prepped our canoes before doing the shuttle to Kilmore. There were snow flurries as we got ready to go, but in between, the sun was shining.

Off we went, usually with Andy or me leading, Nick happy to follow one or both of us. It was bouncy in places, with lots of overhanging trees to be avoided. But there were usable eddies all the way down so safety wasn’t an issue.

The first weir had some debris in it so we portaged it, easily walking down the left side and getting back on-board. Off we went again. There were some great sections of natural rock gardens, none more than grade 2 but with the speed of the water, and the overhanging trees, you needed to keep your wits about you.

On one section, I was leading. It got a little bouncy. Avoiding trees meant sometimes having to ride the wave train in the middle. But my NC prospector has a lot of freeboard so I was confident in its ability to get a dry run.

I spotted an eddy at the bottom, trimmed the boat nose heavy, and went for the “set” into the eddy.

I’m not sure how it happened, (I’ll let Nick explain), but I heard a shout, turned round and saw Nick close behind me in the water, his canoe upside down. I went after him, shouting to let him know I was with him, and eventually pointing out an eddy he could swim for.

Andy, who was behind Nick, shot off after Nick’s canoe.

I slipped back onto the rear seat, and Nick got in the front of my canoe. We paddled tandem down to find Andy, who had secured the runaway boat to a tree. We all did a bit of housekeeping (bailing out).

The next obstacle was a bridge with narrow arches, only wide enough to get through.
The middle arch was the safest, but it had a branch lodged near the entrance. I went onto the bridge and for the first time, used my big karabiner and 5m tape to hook the branch and pull it clear. All those years of carrying them, and I’d finally got to use them.

Big Al.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb

We shot under the bridge and carried on downstream. Andy had mentioned a fallen tree to watch out for, but I thought it was much further down. However, we did come across one much sooner than we both had expected. Andy was leading and shouted a warning, I was next and warned Nick. We all eddied out and Andy went onto the bank to check it out. He came back and said we could squeeze by on the left side, so I had a go. It took a little bit of manoeuvring, but I got through. Andy came next, also taking a bit of time to get by. Nick had miscalculated and was too close on Andy’s tail with nowhere to go, so ended up breached on the tree.
I was closest, so went up the bank to help out.

We decided to do a little bit of work to make a better way past. Andy did the cutting, Nick secured Andy’s canoe and cleared the bits as they came free. I offered encouragement and videoed the event. I’m very generous that way.

We stopped at the big weir and had lunch, then set off down again. We found the tree that we were discussing earlier, causing a strainer all the way across the river. A quick discussion resulted in us all portaging past it to save any hassle. It was too big for us to tackle when the flow was so strong.
There was one more weir between us and the cars at Kilmore. It was a tricky one, so we surveyed it from the bank. We walked down the field to discuss where best to set up safety positions should it all go wrong. Nick was happy to Portage. Andy said he would too. I wanted to run it. The guys had no objections, and were happy to provide cover. I helped them with their boats over the gate, and as they dragged them down to the river, I did a few tweaks to my canoe to make sure everything was secure.

Off I went, starting river left, but cutting right to avoid some low hanging branches, hoping to catch an eddy on the right bank.

It didn’t go perfectly, as I missed the eddy at Andy’s feet, but caught the next one. Then swung out and dropped down to where Nick was providing cover at the third eddy.

We all got back onto the water and went down to Kilmore where we’d left the cars.

The wall at the new bridge made the perfect windbreak and suntrap. So we sat for a while, having a bit of craic in the winter sunshine.

A good day on the river in what turned out to be pretty good weather for the time of year.

Thanks Andy and Nick for your company.

Big Al.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb

Miles of good fast flow and loads of water and good company made this a great day out. No bumping and scraping this day. Heavy rain and snowmelt had brough the river up much higher than I had expected. Getting whipped round the head by the odd branch was almost unavoidable. Kingfishers, dippers and a buzzard put in appearances. More days like this, please.

I know I look like the village idiot on this blog, but Al is just posting the funny bits.
It was a brilliant day out and the most technical paddle I have ever done, there were lots of excellent eddy outs and even times where it looked like I knew what I was doing !
We know each others abilities well and work as a team, I provided the rescue practise. I will say that a good drysuit and buoyancy aid, and the application of the lessons from Safety and Rescue training made the incidents low risk and almost fun.
Thanks for company lads
Nick

I think it's fair to say that we take turns at being the idiot. I took my turn on the Glenelly river. But there's nothing like taking a swim to remind you what we learned on the wwsr course. And unfortunately because the camera is fixed to the wrong side it didn't capture Nick doing everything right whilst in the water and self rescuing.

As Nick says the videos above are a bit skewed, making him look bad and that wasn't my intention. There was so much more to this river trip than those few incidents. It was a full on fun whitewater trip, and the craic was great.

Here's a few more videos to give a more balanced view of what the trip was like.

In the thumbnail for this one you can see the branch I hooked up out of our way.

We really were blessed with sunshine most of the trip.

Last edited by Big Al.; 13th-February-2018 at 09:20 PM.

Big Al.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb